


Detective Espinoza, You've Been Forgiven.

by herondale 4 (Littlelionman15)



Category: Lucifer (TV)
Genre: Cinnamon Roll Dan Espinoza, F/M, Hurt Dan Espinoza, Redemption
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-08-21
Updated: 2019-08-21
Packaged: 2020-09-23 15:35:39
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,900
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20342488
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Littlelionman15/pseuds/herondale%204
Summary: after watching 4x07 of lucifer, i thought dan was beyond redemption.this is a bit of a fix-it fic, in which our dear detective and pudding lover, dan, agrees to follow ella to a surprise she's made for him. warning: i really miss charlotte richards and i think you can tell that here :D





	Detective Espinoza, You've Been Forgiven.

**Author's Note:**

> one time, i was out on the town, waiting for my friend to meet me. i was sitting at this bench outside her apartment and i had just gotten into lucifer - best decision ever - so this might not be very objective, but i was looking at this couple, a man with short brown hair, a woman with blonde-ish hair and their little girl between them, holding both of her parents hands. i couldn't help but think of a scene with dan, chloe and trixie, when she was even smaller than in s1, way before the palmetto incident, and it's just them coming home from the park, trixie telling them how much she enjoyed playtime and building a sandcastle with dad while mom went to get ice cream for her little monkey.  
that's the dan i see every time i look at him. kudos to kevin alejandro for the incredible portrayal! <3

Wednesdays had been Dan’s favorite weekday at the precinct – for one particular reason: Lucifer had taken that specific day of the week off for some reason, so Dan’s chocolate flavored _Pudding Plus _would remain intact until breakfast.  
He hadn’t been seeing him around a lot lately. Truth be told, it’s not that detective Douche, as the bastard had named him, missed him much. He stopped dropping by the precinct daily since Chloe unexpectedly took the vacation Dan had been telling her for months to take and to have the break she deserves. It felt a bit out-of-the-blue, yes, but when he asked her if everything was okay, she said that she’s fine and that she’d finally taken his advice and decided to rest.  
Besides, Dan had had a lot on his own plate at the moment; it’s been barely a month since Charlotte’s death, and boy, it felt as if the skies had decided to rain endlessly wherever he’d looked. 

The precinct felt like a minefield under his feet, with every corner painted with a memory of her; the precinct’s kitchen, for example – he’d always throw a look when passing by, hoping to see a sight of her with her black coffee mug pressed against her soft, beautiful lips, with her hair falling over the shoulders of her blazer in light waves as her sharp and focused eyes made the person she’d talked to feel as if the world had stopped and waited for them to relieve their soul to her. Today marked the fifth day at his new desk – placed under the stairs, somewhat more crowded than the one he had close to Chloe’s, but he’d changed it for two reasons; to stay further away from Lucifer and because it felt easier to look at a desk at which he didn’t see her, sitting at the very edge of it, toying with a pen between her long and elegant fingers while she talked to him about something riddling her in the new case she was processing.  
It was one of the things he loved about her – she’d almost never come to him for advice regarding her cases; she wanted someone to listen to her present it more to herself than to the listener, figuring out a connection in mid-talk, and my God, did he feel like he was the luckiest man on Earth to be the one listening to her.

It’d been one of those Wednesdays when Lucifer hadn’t dropped by – at all, now that he’d text Ella to see if the most brilliant and compassionate detective both Dan and the entire precinct had seen, returned – and Dan was going on about his day, burying himself in paperwork of the case he’d closed recently.  
Amongst the seemingly endless mirage of words printed on white paper and stashed into beige folders was one freshly printed – this one with a picture in color and statistics about the picture stated underneath it. He had eyed it from time to time, after he’d finish a sentence in the report, quickly running back to his work and the thoughts he was successfully escaping until today, when the real estate agent he hired had sent the newest offer for a place near the precinct, a one-bathroom-one-bedroom condo downtown.

Sleeping in Charlotte’s apartment – _their apartment_, for a short second – felt good at first. While it didn’t take him long to clean up the glass from the table he’d broken with his present to her, the waffle-maker he wanted to gift to her before he eventually went for the bracelet, but there were things that Dan Espinoza couldn’t clean with a broom and a vacuum cleaner.

Her pillow still smelled like her hair; sweet in an elegant way, the dash of a rose scent, but not the sweet that made you think of someone who’s soft hearted and ordinary – the kind of sweet that made you think of this influential, strong woman, who’s got classiness and sweetness tucked behind her ear, along with the strand of hair that shaped the elegant line of her face.  
That was the reason he decided to move to the living room and its white leather, custom-made, Italian sofa. At first he had trouble falling asleep without the TV on because he swore he could still hear her laughter, so honest and beautiful, coming from the heart, when they’d watched comedies after work; and when he would finally fall asleep, he’d jerk himself awake in cold sweat, still feeling the weight of her body in his hands.  
Since insomnia made it difficult to function during work, alongside her buddies grief and hurt, Dan decided it was time to move out. 

Ella looked for him, one of the deputies had told him after he’d closed the folder of today’s report. It was near eight o’clock, and his shift was soon to be over. He’d probably head to the motel room he rented and the nearby bar before it once the clock ticks end of the shift.  
She was in her lab when he got up from his chair, not even caring to fix his hair in case it was messy or if his white shirt had coffee spilled over it – he didn’t want to leave her hanging again, like he used to do in the first days after returning to work, when he’d miss out on their plans to go to the apartment and turn his phone off.  
“Hey” he hung at the doorframe, pushing the edges of his lips into a smile – something his muscles seemingly forgot how to do – when she turned around.  
“I heard you were looking for me. What’s up?”  
Ella smiled. Hers came naturally, lifting her rosy cheeks and lighting her face as her lips shaped a true smile. She looked at the clock quickly, before taking her rubber gloves off.  
“I need you to come with me somewhere.” Her brown eyes were full of love as they locked with his.

_Oh, no. Hell no_.  
This must’ve been another attempt to drag him to church to deal with his feelings.  
“I’m kinda busy tonight…” he scratched the back of his head while frowning as if it would help him come up with a plausible lie. “Lots of paperwork, really…”  
“Dan, I’m not dragging you to church again. Don’t worry; I realized that was a mistake.”  
This time, a hint of a smile cracked on his face as well as he swept into the lab, closing the door.  
“Where are we going, then?” _a beer_ would’ve been a good answer. He started drinking a few every night as it helped him fall asleep easier.  
“Well, I can’t tell you – you need to come with me. Are you done with your work for the night?”  
“Yeah” he looked at her with a sense of guilt burning his cheeks as they set aflame under his skin. “Yeah, I’m done.”  
“Good!” she cheered, her black ponytail dancing in the air as she turned around to put her glasses down. “Then we’re going. Come on.”  
She held her arm out, elbow bent outward and hand at her hip, nodding to his side as if telling him to take it. It looked silly – like they were going to prom together – but Ella was the only person beside Chloe and Trixie whom he could stand, and to add to the list of reasons why he followed through another silly attempt to cheer him up, Ella Lopez was one of the rare people who genuinely gave a damn for him. Dan nodded, compliantly taking his position and heading towards the exit.

The building she’d taken him to – a red brick, three story one – felt familiar to him, but there was no way in hell that Dan could remember where from.  
“Come on” she’d nodded again, her bright eyes sparking with a held back sense of cheer and a sincere desire for her friend’s happiness. “The place is on the second floor.”  
Dan followed through. Once they exited her car after the fifteen minute ride, she’d put her hand on his shoulder, almost hanging from it because of the height difference – Dan must’ve been at least for two heads taller than she was – but the wonderful Ms. Lopez didn’t remove it, for two particular reasons:  
_one_, her back hurt really badly from bending over the microscope for the entire afternoon, analyzing the partial DNA print they found at the crime scene, and Dan was really tall so this stretch felt nice for her back;  
_two_, she was afraid he’d run once they come to the final destination. It’s not like she could do much because of said difference in height and weight, yes, but still – she held on to him.

As soon as he saw the sign on the wooden door, a small metal plate with a name carved into it, Dan froze. “Ella” he made it sound more like a question, followed by the inquisitive look he’d shot her. “Why did you take me to Dr. Martin’s office?”  
The surprise destination of the night was Dr. Linda Martin’s therapy office. The bland walls and the ugly, brown blinds on the windows made it seem more like an asylum to him, urging something in his stomach to run for his life.  
Ella took his hand, moving it from his shoulder with a silent and satisfied sigh – her back hurt less now – and clutched his hand into his.  
“Linda is a friend of mine and Maze and Chloe’s” she began, “and she’s helped all three of us go through some dark stuff.”  
“Ella, I really appreciate this.” He truly did – she was the only one willing to take her free time and replace it with time spent with him, whom he believed to be a basket case at this point.  
“But I don’t need a shrink. I’ll get better.”  
“And I don’t doubt that you will – it’s just that you’ll get better with her leading the way.”

_I mean_, Dan thought for a second, _if this woman had the strength and composure to listen to Lucifer blabbing about himself for months and not kill him or check herself into a mental institution, she definitely had what it takes to deal with hard cases_.  
He just didn’t want to be a hard case himself. Admitting that he was one would feel much worse than bottling it up and he knew that – hence the urge to run away, but it was as if Ella’s hand anchored him to where they stood.  
The door opened, a friendly face popping up behind the thick frame of her glasses. “Hi!” she sounded welcoming, standing in her office and holding her hand out towards the inside – probably to a sofa – while she and Ella exchanged quick looks.  
“We haven’t formally met – I’m Dr. Linda Martin. I’m glad to meet you, detective Espinoza. Come in, please.”

Throwing one last look at Ella’s side before entering the office, he saw her nose rise with pride and her lips make that proud snicker he loved so much on her.  
“I’ll be outside, big guy.” She patted him on the back, welcomingly.  
Just before closing the door, he looked at her one last time and nodded, feeling a sudden urge to hold back tears of gratitude; Dan might’ve lost the love of his life, but now he truly knew he wasn’t alone. And for that, he was grateful. 


End file.
